THE
SITUATION
Long distance calling rates between North
America and Europe to Africa, Asia, and Latin America
are very expensive. As a result, a large and lucrative
business has sprung up providing discounted calling cards
using Internet-based PSTN toll by-pass solutions. However,
the next-generation networking equipment used to enable
the Internet-based solutions cannot connect to the local
telephone networks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The signaling used in these regions is incompatible with
the softswitches and VoIP gateways manufactured for the
North American and European markets. |